Spring Road Super Review: Midnight's "Case of the Yehudi Murder," Smash Comics #30 (January 1942)

"The Case of the Yehudi Murder" begins when aged Big City bachelor Mr. Hobbs is accosted by a man who collapses at his feet claiming to be dying. Hobbs barely has opportunity to reply before the man expires...and then seemingly evaporates!

When he reports these events to the local police, Hobbs is initially accused of drunkenness. The officer asks mockingly, "Who do you suppose done it? Yehudi?"

Aside from the title, this is the one-and-only mention of the word yehudi in this story. This makes Cole's decision to use it in the title a bit curious to me. As near as I could tell online, yehudi is most-commonly used as a synonym for Jew...perhaps it has the sense of an especially physically-tough Jew. However, neither of those uses make much sense to me within the context of this story. Am I supposed to understand that the officer is calling Hobbs a Jew? Was Cole appealing to some contemporary stereotype (of which I'm utterly ignorant) about the streets being full of ruffian Jews killing people? Any help making sense of this would be much appreciated!

After the old man identifies the (apparently) very-much alive Sheriff J.J. Stanbaugh as the mysterious vanishing corpse, Hobbs is labelled insane and sent off to a padded cell.

Alone in the cell lamenting that no one will listen, Hobbs receives a note that through the barred windows from Midnight! Big City's avenger believes, for it turns out that--yet again--Doc Wackey's visoscope provided evidence corroborating Hobbs' story.

On this basis, Midnight and Gabby set to sleuthing, ordering Wackey to keep his eye on the visoscope and report anything of significance.

The scene then shifts to the apartment of one Professor Craft, who is receiving local dignitary Mayor Smith. Upon entering the apartment, Smith is seized by thugs in Craft's employ. The professor reveals his plan: kill Smith, as well as a host of other city leaders, and replace them all with a look alikes.

Thanks once again to the visoscope, Midnight is almost immediately aware of the danger facing Mayor Smith, and sets out for Craft's apartment.

When he and Gabby arrive, we see a reprisal of an older tool used by Midnight--acid! This time, our hero uses what appears to be a simple squirt gun loaded with some sort of super-acid. What's really revealing, however, is Midnight's vain rationale: he simply does this to make a more dramatic entrance!

Though it seems vain to me, the fact that Craft's thugs are initially too scared to attack a man who can "walk through doors" suggests that perhaps our fedora-bedecked paladin understands the criminal psyche better than I do.

It's at this point, that the story really moves into "shark-jumping" territory. Incensed at the timidity of his hired muscle, Craft seizes the initiative himself by hurling a crate of "experimental snakes" at Midnight.

I for one would love to know precisely what sort of professor Craft is. He's quite the polymath if he's mastered advanced plastic surgery, and the engineering skill needed to create a disintegration ray and he dabbles in "experimental snakes" on the side. For that matter, if Craft has all of these superlative skills, why is he living in an apartment?! Shouldn't this super--genius have at least pulled together enough resources to have his own house?

As always, when Midnight is down for the count, his trusty sidekick simian Gabby picks up the slack. The manglin' monkey launches himself at Craft's face and delivers a furious furry pummeling. Leaping to the controls of the disintegration ray, Gab turns it on the villains and sends them crying for the hills. As the bad guys scatter, he returns to the side of his envenomed compatriot and proceeds to draw out the poison.

Wackey then informs his fellows that Craft has sped up his timetable and means to eliminate the other office holders and install his own men immediately! Without pausing for even so much as a bandage job on his snake-bitten elbow, Midnight and Gab are right back at it. Fortunately, their first stop is quick swing next door (courtesy of the vacuum gun) to save District Attorney Kane.

Our hero comes crashing through the window just as Kane is being held at gunpoint. Midnight delivers a shattering blow to Craft's face. Then, lest the festivities end too quickly, Gabby uses a well-placed spitball to cause one of the terrified thugs to leap into Midnight's arms, which our hero interprets as a challenge to a scrap. A whole lot of crashing ensues, and the story ends with four thugs out cold, and Midnight not even out of breath.